I recently had a bittersweet lunch with a friend of mine. It was exciting to catch up with him, but sad to hear his story. He’s unhappy in his current job, but unsure what to do about it. His family is too accustomed to the quality of life his income provides and he is unsure [...]
Last week I had the opportunity to give a talk at the inaugural IgniteOKC event in Oklahoma City. I chose three essays in the “How to Fail” series and compiled them into the talk you see below. For those of you unfamiliar with Ignite, it is a style of presentation where speakers are given 5 [...]
Conventional wisdom tells us that we ought to live for the moment. Experts tout that the past is history, the future a mystery and so today is our present. Sounds wonderful and appealing to book marketers, even though it is deeply flawed.
Consider for a moment, the story of Norman Bourlag. In 1970 Norman Bourlag was [...]
David Beckham knows something you don’t.
Sure, Beckham knows how to curl a soccer ball 35-yards over a wall of opposing players and have the ball dip into the bottom corner of the goal at just the right moment. But he also knows a bigger secret: as long as he can bend a soccer ball like [...]
I have a dream to be the lead singer of a rock band, filing small clubs with raving fans. I have a dream of owning a restaurant, probably a steakhouse, where sophisticated and important clients discuss world events and make deals over aged prime steaks. I have a dream of having dinner with the President, [...]
I have a colleague who is chronically unorganized. It seems as though every time I talk to her, she is telling me how she forgot to do something or made an error on some piece of paperwork. The other day, we had a meeting over lunch. The rest of us arrived on time and waited. [...]
In the 1960s, a stranger made history by giving children candy. The man was Walter Mischel, a researcher at Stanford University. He gave children treats as a part of what is now referred to as “the Marshmallow Test.” Mischel would give a group of four-year-olds a marshmallow and promise another if they could wait until [...]
I have a friend who manages a gym. He tells me that the majority of revenue his gym generates comes in the first three months of the year. Every year, without fail, well-intentioned people come in to sign up for a year-long membership. These people intend to make big fitness changes in their life, to [...]
About
David Burkus is the editor of LeaderLab, a community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. He is an executive coach, a sought-after speaker and an adjunct professor at Oral Roberts University’s School of Business.